Friday, July 17, 2009

Seriously... is it so hard to just credit me for my own photographs? It's disturbing to see my body parts plastered all over someone else's website with someone else's name on them. Do I have to use a more obnoxious watermark or what?

Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

YB, awwe thank you! I might have to do that. I don't think it's too much to ask that if people use my pics to credit me for my work! Is it?? Honestly, it's as simple as that! And I think your pics ROCK! (And I didn't know you had a blog! May I link to it in my blogroll??)

Alejandra, ugh, no way! What a bunch of wretched thieves! Have they no shame??

Jesserka, awe, thank you! I might have to, but I didn't want to because it'll look ugly! I just can't believe they couldn't simply mention "Here's Scrangie's pictures!" I mean, HONESTLY!! UGH!!

It's Called Maintenance, no, I haven't, I should find the contact information. Yes- that's all- just mention that it's my pictures and link to me! It takes two seconds, I can't believe they'd like my pictures so much to use them but not enough to give me credit for them! Jerks.

CoolTrash, no, that's even worse. That means they altered my work without permission, which directly violates the "No Derivative Works" part of my Creative Commons License. They could have just credited me for my own photo.

This is an entirely different level of plagiarism, in that the individual took some pains to hide the original source, rather than just steal the pic outright and then try to play innocent. This, to me, is nastier: you'd really have to know what you were looking for (ahem REFLECTIONS ahem) to identify the theft. Plus, it must have taken some time to crop-n-shop. Would it not have been easier to just do her own swatches?

Lina-Elvira, thank you dear. It might be time for that. I just wish there weren't so many selfish, dishonest shameless thieves out there!

Mary, oh, it's even easier than that! They don't even have to ask my permission if they link and credit me! SO SIMPLE yet they had to steal!

Cacaute, I can't believe what this world is coming to. Everyone seems so entitled!

Phyrra, thank you *hugs*

Eeeradicator!, EXACTLY!!!! That's exactly it! Deliberate and intentional theft! She could have just used my original photos and credited them, no permission needed... Or, you know, used CHINA GLAZE'S STOCK/PROMO PHOTOS. Ugh, these people disgust me.

omg that is awful. You have the best nails and take the best pics...I don't understand why folks think they can get away with stealing. I hope they know they've been caught red (and grey, copper, etc) handed!

They want all the glory from having the swatches but without the time and effort and possible expense of doing it themselves. You should feel better knowing that you are a better person than that and they are pathetic!

SO not cool... This one is particularly nasty; she KNEW she's doing a very bad thing... not to say others didn't (eBay sellers for example) but doing all this work, for what? Really nasty and yuk.Dunno, I think the problem is that the people don't see this kind of things as stealing because they think they hurt no one! You should write on your blog, somewhere visible, you want credit for your work; I bet a lot of people don't even think about doing that! Or they think it's not allowed... Emphasize that IT IS allowed, all they need to do is..........

Ugh! that is probably so annoying! Your pictures are very good but come on people! give credit! isnt wayy easier then going to all that trouble of making it look like its yers? Its a good thing you catch these people! I probably would have no idea! Not like anyone wants to steal my pics

P.S. YOu really don't have to bi CSI to see these are yours. I've been comparing the pics, I think she/he has been taking photos of your index finger... notice 'cruisin' swatch - they have the exact same 'spots' as on your photo...

They also seem to have stolen other swatch photos from other people. So tacky. (went to their site. It's in french. Might want to find out if their actions have violated their TOU, or those of their service provider.)

Wow! What did they do cut away everything but one finger nail from a bunch of pictures? Yuck.

Way to be stealing theirs (back I guess, but with their watermark) and putting it up. T hanks, now we all know who NOT to trust! I'm putting them on my "black/don't be nice to/maybe even be kinda mean to" list!

Argh...given the number of hours it would take to photoshop the fingernails, you would think it would be easier to swatch your own nails. Entitlement, a mean streak, cluelessness - call it what you will, but it is just plain ignorant. Let's hope all these nasty, entitled narcissists don't breed...we don't need more of them!

I am sorry that this happens to you...having had my research ideas stolen when I happen to offhandedly mention cool concepts for studies, I know what you are going through. It is a violation, and it makes you feel like a victim. Watermark across your nails if you have to, we will all understand!!

that's so nasty :-( maybe you can send those losers a letter signed by a lawyer?I only recently started bloging myself, and put a watermark only in the last posts. don't think anyone want to still MY photos, beeing so amaturish. you got awesome photos.

There should be laws against this stuff. Please keep believing in yourself and your blog. I'm sure i'm not the only person who reads day after day and loves looking at the nail swatches and choosing colours and provides an opinion and description and picture that the e-retailer cannot hope to deliver.

Oh Scrangie :( I agree that perhaps you should burn a water mark that extend across each nail. The images you post are large enough where I don't think it would get in the way of seeing the actual colors.

I can't believe that not only did they take your work, but they cut out the individual nails. That seems like so much extra work compared to just crediting you.

WOW, WUT BEEZIES. THEY SHOULD AT LEAST HAVE U'RE CONSENT. THEY THINK JUST CUZ THEY PHOTOSHOP THE PICTURE THEY CAN CLAIM IT AND SHIT. FCUKIN SHADY. I THINK I'D BE HELLAAAA PISS IF I FIND PPL FREAKIN SNATCH MY SHIT. I'D GIVE THEM AN 'EYEFULL'! IM SORRY THEY TAKIN YO SHIT SCRANGIE, THEY SHOULD'VE GAVE U SOME CREDIT AT LEAST. PPL....SHADY.

That's really disappointing. Unfortunately in this day and age, this sort of thing happens all the time. Even having a watermark as what you've done, doesn't deter these losers. I recently had this done to me in ebay and because I wasn't a vero member, ebay couldn't do anything about it.

I'm just amazed they took all that trouble to crop each nail/colour which to me is more sinister as they deliberately took pains to conceal where they got it from. A simple credit would've been a lot easier.

That is such a pathetic move on their part! I mean really how hard is to 1 take your own darn pictures or 2 ask nicely?ps it's me missnono, incase you didn't recognise my face. lol and I hope you don't mind but I linked your blog to mine.

Honestly, you have a good watermark that allows the images to be clearly identified as yours. For a couple unethical people here and there, don't trouble yourself with trying to create a wholly theft proof watermark. Readers know your blog and your nails. These ridiculous thieves had to separate them from your fingers to steal the images! The real revenge is calling them out. No good/profit can come of such exposure.

I hate those pictures too... I don't think my pictures are famous enough for other people to steal (A girl use one of my eyeshadow swatch for a shadow she have to sell...but the picture was crappy so I didn't mind that much...)

But it's quite bad when people just take them and assume that it's their own. In Taiwan I think there is a blog site called wretch that people would not be able to right click (so they can't save picture nor copy and paste...) which is pretty neat...

I am thinking about writing a coded embedded in my pictures (my writing sucks, so I don't care if they copy those...wait, I still do) and it release a command that shut the computer/browser/window off whenever they paste it to a new place...

I guess that's legal? ( I mean, at least it's not a virus...) But anyway, to be able to do that, I need to stop falling asleep in all of my programming classes first.

That is just fucked up. Disembodied nails, how creepy!! I agree with others, I think you should put a bigger watermark on your pics. It sucks you have to do it, but we know how much effort goes into swatching and we appreciate it!!

ohmy! I can't get over the part where they had to put some work into your pretty photos to make their own. that's just stupid. I'm very sorry that this happened to you. I love your pretty photos (and your nails). Just .. grrrrrr!

My goodness. This is awful. When I think about all the effort it would have taken to cut out each nail and put it all together...it would have been SO much easier just to credit your photos. Seriously. Ugh. I read your blog almost daily--your swatches have been really helpful for finding the perfect colors for me, so thank you for that. I enjoy your humorous, down-to-earth writing style. I'm so sorry this happened to you, how hard is it to give you credit??

aw, I'm sorry! Truth is, if you do something great on the internet (which you definitely do!!!) people are going to want to copy you - and most don't want to put in the effort to do it themselves! I've had my graphics, web templates and layouts stolen on several sites, I know the feeling and it sucks. But just remember there are sooooo many of us that are thankful for what you do, so please feel better =]

It looks like they did credit you directly below the photograph in question. Perhaps they felt like they were acknowledging credit for all? Not sure if this is a new development, but here is what she wrote:

Why on earth would they put that much effort into removing your fingers and parts of your hand... it would have taken less time to write you a little email and kindly ask you if they could use your photos.

wow

Your blog and photos as always, are amazing, I definitely will be sending a strongly worded letter to those wangers about using pictures without giving credit..... Anyone with a mild interest in nail polish knows your blog, I do hope that others follow suit and hopefully situations like this will occur less often ♥

Plastic Cup of Stars, oh, that's good! They must have read this because it definitely wasn't there before (I saved a screenshot and .pdf of the page). I'm still pissed that they tried to pass off my work as their own and went through all that trouble instead of just using my original pictures and crediting me.

I'm sorry. It's frustrating when people won't give you credit for your work. I work in the music business at a PRO (performance rights organization). We work to protect songwriters' and song publishers' copyrights. Most people have very little understanding of or consideration for intellectual property. They treat it like air - something they are entitled to.

You could larger watermarks on your photos - but it sounds like that's not something you want to do. You could put giant warnings all over your blog about copyright and the use of your work - how it must be credited. You could even post that uses must have expressed, written permission to use your property. But unfortunately, if people want the pictures they're going to find a way to take them and may not go to effort to credit/notify you.

If this is really bothering you, keep in mind that your photos and the original content of your blog are your intellectual property and you have the right to say how it can be used. As a first step, I'd gracioulsy email the person using your photos and ask for them to credit you. As a second action, if they do not credit you borrow some legal language (that you can find on-line) and email them directly using words like "cease and desist" and other big scary law-type words. Most people will be scared enough of that - and a potential lawsuit - to take your photos down or at the least give you credit. And you won't have to do anything further.

From there, you can decide how far you want to take if it's something that you truly want to pursue.

Otherwise, just let it roll. And I guess you can look at is a form of flattery - that you do such great work (because you do!) that people want to use it!

Gaaahhh. This is the 68th expression of angst and irritation on your behalf. A rotten thing to do. At least you fianlly got a credit, but way too little too late. A massive grump from over the pond in the rip-off merchant's direction.

Scrangie - that sucks. I hope that with your reminder that people will start giving you credit for your work! I always provide a link if I am referring someone to something I haven't swatched or demo'd myself! It's just good etiquette!

I just LOVE LOVE LOVE your nails/swatches!! But I'm afraid I'm going to have to break up with you or I'm goin' to the poor house! I just ordered 5 of the 6 going green from nubar plus another 6 colors from them. ALL BECAUSE OF YOUR GORG-0 SWATCHES!!!Sorry about the pic thief.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE your nails/swatches but I'm gonna have to break up with you before I end up in the poor house!! I just ordered 5 of the 6 going green from nubar plus another 6 of their colors ALL BECAUSE of your gorg-o swatches! ;)

That is horrible beyond horrible. Funny thing is that she had the nerve (beyond stealing photos) to then put her website address on the photo, so people knew where it came from.

Now she's giving you credit and has posted your original photos. Clearly she knows she got caught and what she did was wrong, as it appears she is giving credit on MANY of her pictures now. I still think it's terrible.

WTH is wrong with people!!! I'm so sorry this happened. I have had many pics stolen. But I never had a blog that I had to work hard on nearly every day. The blood, sweat and money you have invested in your blog is amazing! It must be so frustrating for you. ((hug))

Yes, Manon, they changed it. I have it saved and a screenshot of it for good measure. There was NO mention of my name at all, and they stole my pictures, edited them to make it look like their own and then put their name on them. My name was only added after I called them out on their blatant theft and disrespect.

Manon, that's okay! I'm just not going to go back there to look and give them a single cent of ad revenue! They were even making money off my pictures... Ugh. There are other good nail sites out there :)